Maria Planas: "The Biennial vindicates documentary photography with Dorothea Lange and Sergio Larrain"

Maria Planas is the director of the fourteenth edition of the Xavier Miserachs Photography Biennial and, in this interview with bonart, she talks to us about the main points of this new call, which was inaugurated on August 2 and can be visited until October 18 in various spaces in the Palafrugell municipality, such as La Bòbila, the Cork Museum of Catalonia, the Vila Casas Foundation, the Josep Pla Foundation, the Palafrugell Municipal Theatre, the Torre de Guaita de Sant Sebastià de Llafranc, the Public Library, among others.

Planas has been at the helm of the Biennial for many years, taking on a task that combines artistic and curatorial direction with the institutional management of the festival. Throughout several interviews, he has explained the criteria that have guided the programming, based on the dialogue between photographers of Xavier Miserachs' generation, authors with consolidated careers, new talents discovered at festivals and the recovery of local photographic archives, both public and private.

• Dorothea Lange, Cotton Planters. Greene County, Georgia, 1937, Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Farm Security Collection, Administration.

INTERVIEW MARIA PLANAS (Director of the XIV Xavier Miserachs Photography Biennial)

Alexandra Planas - What would be the main novelties of this XIV edition of the Xavier Miserachs Biennial 2026?

Maria Planas - This year's Biennial wants to reclaim the theme of documentary photography, since, in my opinion, it is a very important genre in today's social and climatic context.

This common thread would materialize in two major international exhibitions, which are: “ Dorothea Lange. A Long Journey ”, which is made up of images by the American photographer from the Library of Congress of the United States and which portray the consequences of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl phenomenon, and “ Sergio Larrain. The vagabond of Valparaíso ”, which is the first retrospective in Catalonia dedicated to the Chilean photographer, produced by Magnum Photos in collaboration with the Foto Colectania Foundation and curated by Agnès Sire.

What is the guiding theme of this year's program?

For example, I would mention the exhibition The Casanovas. A lineage of photographers , which recovers more than a century of history of the municipality of Palafrugell through the archive of a family lineage of photographers, in a project built with the collaboration of neighbors and the Municipal Archive. In short, it is a participatory project for the recovery of personal and collective memory.

• The Casanovas, Women dressed for carnival. Palafrugell, ca. 1930, © Fotografia Casanovas.

How do the big names in photography mix with emerging photographers?

I believe that in this Biennial, established artists coexist very well with emerging ones, since within the Biennial's programming we can highlight the work of Carles Palacio (at the Public Library), which refers to the crisis in the fishing sector on the Costa Brava; Wayra Ficapal's research on the climate threat in the Ebro Delta, as well as Vero Mora Noya's look at women caregivers (at the Museu del Suro). We should also mention the exhibition entitled " Local is global " (at La Bòbila), which consists of a selection from the Banc de Sabadell Art Collection, which focuses on the theme of photojournalism and major social and environmental challenges. It is positive that a banking institution like this collects documentary photography!

Also very relevant are the exhibition by Txema Salvans (at the Josep Pla Foundation), entitled Adjectives of Time , or that of Cuixart a tres bandas i… , by Lluís Maimí, Josep Capellà and Francesc Dalmau, on the occasion of the year of celebration of the centenary of the birth of the painter Modest Cuixart.

• Sergio Larrain, Bar. Valparaíso, Chile, 1963, Sergio Larrain/Magnum Photos.

What impact do you think this Biennial has on the inhabitants of Palafrugell?

The impact on the people of Palafrugell is above all cultural! It should be remembered that this Biennial is one of the oldest photography events in Catalonia and that this year it presents a total of eleven exhibitions (most of which are unpublished and self-produced), which has had the support of the Palafrugell City Council, the Banc de Sabadell Foundation, the Generalitat de Catalunya and the Girona Provincial Council.

What is the budget allocated for the organization of the Biennial?

For this edition it was 130,000 euros.

What was the volume of visits in the previous edition and how do you think they can be increased?

In the 2024 edition we counted around 8,000 visits, both national and international. For this year, our goal is to increase this figure by organizing parallel activities that have been programmed for the general and educational public, such as guided tours, screenings, conferences, debates on photography and literature, etc.

Regarding ticket sales…

This year the ticket price is 10 euros and can be purchased online through a QR code or at the box office at the different points of sale in Palafrugell, such as La Bòbila, the Josep Pla Foundation or the Vila Casas Foundation.